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Streaky strikers

Martin's back with some fascinating stats...

Every week he will be here on skysports.com to answer your questions and to offer you statistical gems from what he's seen as he tours the world commentating for Sky Sports.

Sky Sports' voice of football and his back-up team of experts want your queries on all things statistical and historical from the beautiful game.

Hazard: most fouled player this season

So if you have spotted something from a game or have been stumped by a pub quiz question, simply email skysportsclub@bskyb.com and he will do his best to help.

Tyler's teaser

But as usual we'll kick off with a question for YOU. Click play to see this week's Tyler's Teaser.

Martin's starting stat

I was at Newcastle to see Manchester United score the opening goal of a game for only the second time in the Premier League this season (and only the fourth time in 10 games in all competitions).

That goal was Jonny Evans' second for Manchester United (and I commentated on the other one as well, which came at Wolves on March 18). Meanwhile, Patrice Evra scored his fourth Manchester United goal on the occasion of his 300th appearance for the club.

Tom Cleverley scored his second Manchester United goal and both have come against Newcastle in an 11-day period. It was his first Premier League goal for the club, but he has scored three for Wigan before that.

The result extended Manchester United's impressive results against Newcastle in the Premier League. Their record now reads: P37 W21 D12 L4. It was Newcastle's second home defeat of 2012; the other coming against Man City in the penultimate round of games last season.

Steve Harper finally made the 200th league appearance of his career, but only his 110th Premier League appearance. He did, however, play against Man United in the 1999 FA Cup Final.

STREAKY STRIKERSSteven Fletcher has scored Sunderland's last five Premier League goals, Demba Ba has scored Newcastle's last five and Peter Crouch has scored Stoke's last four. But what is the longest streak for a club's goals being scored by one player in Premier League history? Stephen, London

MARTIN SAYS: If Fletcher or Ba score the next goal for their club then they will join a small list of players to have scored six consecutive Premier League goals for one team without another player getting on the scoresheet. Only five players have ever done that in the Premier League before; Alan Shearer, Mark Viduka, James Beattie, Roque Santa Cruz and Michael Owen.

The record is held by Shearer who scored nine straight league goals for Blackburn in 1993 without another player getting on the scoresheet. After Stuart Ripley scored in the 51st minute against Swindon on October 2, Shearer netted an injury-time goal in that game and then scored more goals against Leeds (3), Tottenham (1), Southampton (2), Coventry (2) before Graeme Le Saux broke the streak by scoring against Chelsea on December 5.

Remarkably, Shearer began the second longest streak in Premier League history less than a month later. He scored eight straight goals starting against Everton (2) on December 29, before scoring against Aston Villa (1), Sheffield United (2), Leeds (2) and Wimbledon (1) before Jason Wilcox ended the streak by scoring Blackburn's second against Wimbledon.

FIRST IN THE BOOKHey Martin. I have been noticing something in pretty much every Arsenal game for the last couple of seasons - they seem to pretty much always get the first yellow card, no matter the amount of fouls from each team. Therefore, I would like to know how Arsenal fare compared to other teams in the league, in terms of getting the first yellow in each match. Sincerely, Mark

MARTIN SAYS: We've asked the boffins at Opta to tell us how many times Arsenal received the first yellow card in their 38 Premier League games last season. Arsene Wenger's men were booked first 18 times last season - just under half of their games - and the same number as Chelsea, Manchester City and Norwich. It seems your concerns are unfounded, especially when you compare their record with Sunderland, who received the first yellow card 26 times last season, more than anybody else.

Arsenal have only received the first yellow card in two of their seven games so far this season, which is a remarkable contrast with Aston Villa, who have been booked first in every Premier League game so far.

QUICK AND THE REDHi Martin, I'm sitting here watching QPR v West Ham and Samba Diakite has just been sent off 20 mins after being subbed on for a second booking. I was just wondering what's the quickest time after being introduced into a Premier League game a player has been sent off. Thanks. From Daniel Lawrance, Spurs fan from Oxford.

MARTIN SAYS: Samba Diakite is a long, long way from receiving the quickest red card in Premier League history (although I recall he was sent off after just 33 minutes of his debut against Fulham, too). Opta have given us details of nine players who've been sent off within two minutes of stepping onto the field in a Premier League game (either as a substitute or at the start of the game) and three of those were on the field for less than a minute before being given their marching orders. Those players are:

Christian Negouai - The first man to be sent off in under a minute in the Premier League was French midfielder Christian Negouai, who saw red in the 83rd minute of Manchester City's game with Everton on Boxing Day 2004. He was sent off in the 83rd minute for a foul on Marcus Bent, less than 60 seconds after coming onto the field as a substitute. That was only his second appearance of the season and he never played for Manchester City again.

Andreas Johansson - The Wigan player was sent off in the 76th minute of their 4-2 defeat at Arsenal on May 7, 2006 less than a minute after coming on as a substitute. His trip on Freddie Ljungberg was also momentous because it allowed Thierry Henry to step up from the penalty spot and score the final league goal at Highbury.

Dave Kitson - The Reading striker was sent off at Old Trafford on the opening day of the 2007/08 season. He came on as a 72nd-minute substitute and was sent off in the 73rd minute for a dangerous tackle on Patrice Evra. However, the Royals clung on to draw the game 0-0.

Here is the full list of nine players to have been sent off within less than two minutes of stepping onto the field. Two of them (Tim Flowers and Ben Thatcher) were off within two minutes of the match starting. The other seven were substitutes

Date

Player

Team

Opposition

Mins played

Substitute?

01/02/1995

Tim Flowers

Blackburn

Leeds

2

NO

23/08/1995

Mark Atkins

Blackburn

Sheffield Wednesday

2

YES

23/08/1995

Marco Boogers

West Ham

Man Utd

2

YES

28/12/1997

Ben Thatcher

Wimbledon

West Ham

2

NO

26/12/2004

Christian Negouai

Man City

Everton

1

YES

07/05/2006

Andreas Johansson

Wigan

Arsenal

1

YES

20/01/2007

Keith Gillespie

Sheffield United

Reading

2

YES

12/08/2007

Dave Kitson

Reading

Man Utd

1

YES

09/02/2010

David Meyler

Sunderland

Portsmouth

2

YES

FALLING FOULHi Martin. Great column as always. In the Chelsea game on Saturday the commentator mentioned that Eden Hazard was the most fouled player in the French league for the past two seasons. Which Premier League players have been most fouled in the past few seasons? Thanks, Ed from SA

MARTIN SAYS: We asked Opta for the names of the players who have been fouled the most in each of the last five seasons and, unsurprisingly, the names of wingers crop up quite often. Last season, Newcastle winger Jonás Gutiérrez was fouled 85 times, just ahead of Victor Moses (78) and Luis Suarez (74). This season, Hazard leads the way having already won 21 free-kicks for Chelsea.

DON'T MEDAL WITH USIt occurred to me that Nicolas Anelka is the only player to have Premier League medals with two different clubs and to have played for a third club that has also won the title. The only other player that I can think of to have played for three of the five Premier League title winners is Mark Hughes who only had one title. I was interested in whether anyone had played for more than three of the clubs, and whether they won a title? Also the only players I can think of who have played for more than one of the five clubs (in the Premier League era) without a single medal is David Rocastle (who won a title with Arsenal), George Weah and Gary Flitcroft. Has anyone else managed this unfortunate feat? Thanks, Adam

MARTIN SAYS: I can confirm that there are only two players to have played for three of the five Premier League title winners during the Premier League era. As you suggest, those two players are Nicolas Anelka and Mark Hughes. No player has played for more than three of the five in the Premier League era.

We have found a number of players to add to your list of players to have played for two title winners in the Premier League without winning a title. Our list is as follows (but let us know if you think of any others):

Comments (5)

Chris Ramsdale (Manchester United fan) says...

Hi Martin
Re "Here is our list of players to have played for two title winners and won a medal with both of them"
There are 6! Ashley Cole also won the premier league title with both Arsenal and Chelsea

Posted 12:55 16th October 2012

Dan Self (Arsenal fan) says...

Great column as always! Im not sure if this is correct but Ashley Cole won the premier league with Arsenal and Chelsea?
Also Juan Sebastien Veron played for both Man Utd and Chelsea and won the league with Man Utd?

Posted 12:48 16th October 2012

Jon Brooks (Manchester United fan) says...

Surely David May should feature here as well, having played for both Utd & Blackburn

Posted 14:16 15th October 2012

Sean Stingye (Manchester United fan) says...

I would just like to add, something which Martin forgot to add, is that Andy Cole like Mark Hughes, has played for three premier league winners and only won a medal with one of them teams. Mr Cole has had the distinction of playing for Manchester United, Blackburn and least we forgot Manchester City.

Posted 13:55 15th October 2012

Martyn Tattam (Aston Villa fan) says...

Dwight yorke has played for two title winning teams and won a medal with man utd and also played for blackburn